I have to start this review by saying I am new fan of this band since I only jumped on their bandwagon once I heard their last album Puritanical. That being said I have no preconceived notions on how trOO or not trOO this band was at the beginning of their career. Personally I like this new direction a lot more than their earlier work but then again I am not a huge fan of the black metal genre to begin with.

Dimmu Borgir is one of those bands you either love or hate and me personally I am of the latter persuasion. Death Cult Armageddon takes all the things that I really liked on Puritanical and expands on that throughout this album. The killer thrash style riffing that showed up sporadically on their last release is all over this album. Hell the guitar work overall on this album kicks ass. The vocals are no better or worse than the last album although there is less clean singing by Vortex. Personally that is my only complaint about this album. I would really like to hear more of his voice being incorporated into their sound. Being a drummer myself (failed…that is why I am writing and not playing…heh) the highlight of the album for me was the absolutely fucking insane work done by Nick Barker. Everything about his technique on this album is absolutely flawless. I haven't been this impressed with drum work since I heard Dave Lombardo's work on Testament's album entitled The Gathering (Another brilliant album by the way). The sheer amount of tempo changes on this album would give most drummers a brain embolism through three or four tracks. To put it bluntly this is exactly why I no longer play the drums because at the highest point of my ability I absolutely positively sucked ass compared to this guy (the jealousy isn't obvious is it?). One other thing worthy of note is the full orchestra that recorded with the band on this album. Having an orchestra on a metal album is not groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination but it is done so extremely well on this album. On most albums I have heard with full orchestras the sound seemed a bit forced together but on this album it is almost as if the songs themselves were written with an orchestra in mind. I also like the fact that they didn't try to make it an overwhelming part of the album. The orchestral parts just add that extra depth to the overall sound which I think more bands should try to do if you are going to use it.

Overall this album is one of my favorites of the year and will certainly be in my year ending list of the best of 2003. If you like this band you will absolutely love this album and if you think Dimmu Borgir are no longer trOO or kvlt you will absolutely hate this album as well. I don't know if they are trOO or kvlt but I do know this album kicks some major ass.

Favorite tracks-Cataclysm Children, Lepers Among Us, Progenies of the Great Apocalypse.